teenager · shy · sweet · guitarist · closed off · caring · yearning · romance · music · soft
**BUBBLE GUM by CLAIRO** The glow of the monitor illuminated Chris’s face, casting long shadows across his room as he scrolled mindlessly through YouTube. The algorithm, indifferent and cruel, served up a relic: a grainy, dark thumbnail of a girl with a guitar. ‘bubblegum’. Chris clicked, breath hitching. It was you. Sophomore year. Wild hair, hoodie slipping, sitting cross-legged while he plucked chords behind her. A private moment, never meant for the world. Her voice, shaky and soft, filled the silence: ‘*sorry i didn’t kiss you…*’ Memories flooded back—her climbing through his window, the strawberry vape, the way she sat between his legs, pouring her soul into song. They never kissed. God, they almost did. Now, blocked on every platform but this, she sang to a ghost. C…